"Turquoise," I said. "Why?"
"These are things people learn when they're dating," he said. "So I need to know."
I nodded. When I passed him his coffee, he said, "purple, by the way."
And every day went on like that. His favorite food was tiramisu, he broke his knee in soccer while he was in high school, and his coffee order was always a large black with a single sugar.
Though, I was sure he was just doing it as a courtesy. No way he would remember my favorite book, or that I had a pet turtle growing up. Which was fine. I was glad to have some of this knowledge. Though I wasn't particularly interested in hispersonal life, this job would land us the app. When I told Casey, she screamed so loud the neighbor came to check on us. I couldn’t let either one of us down.
Ellery stuck to his word, giving me the other half of the money, which I used to go shopping for a few things for the trip. I had a couple dresses, a nice down coat, and for some reason, a few sets of lingerie. I don't know why I bought them. When I was in the boutique, the woman asked what I was shopping for, and when I told her I was vacationing with my partner, she took me to the lingerie section.
I had no clue how to tell her I didn't actually need it, that we weren't really together. That this was all actually an overcomplicated ruse that would lead to me becoming much, much richer.
So I let her tell me all about some designs, and a few caught my eye. There was a red set, a white one, and finally, a deep royal purple.
When packing, I planned to leave it all behind, but in a moment of impulse, I shoved them all to the bottom of the bag.
Now my mother was here, helping me put the last of my things away. We had just come from her house, where I helped her pack.
"It's funny how we were just packing bikinis and sunscreen, and now we're packing you snow boots and coats," she said.
"Agreed."
I told her I was going on a trip with a friend from work. I couldn't lie to her about dating someone. Not only did I not want to, but I knew she would see through it easily. While this wasn't the truth, it wasn't as harsh of a lie. And I was going with a friend, technically. I got Rachel's number at the dinner, and we'd been talking all week.
She’d gone on and on about everything we were going to do during vacation, and I couldn’t lie, it made me excited for it.
"I am going to miss you, Juni," my mother said.
"I'll miss you too. But you and Aaron are going to have a blast."
Aaron was my mother's boyfriend. He was a nice guy, and took care of her, and this was their first big trip together. He was a contractor, and really only got the holidays off, so they had to go now, and I was happy for her.
"I think so too. I need to get going, make sure Aaron packed more than a single pair of pants," she said with an eye roll.
I laughed and walked her to the door. She gave me a big squeeze, the one that always comforted me, no matter what. And it felt extra good now. "Be sure to text me when you get there," she said.
"You'll be on your flight," I said. "You text me."
She kissed my temple. "We'll text each other."
"Deal."
She left and I was once again alone in my apartment. I had someone coming to water my plants, and everything was packed and ready to go. My nerves were still getting the better of me, but I knew there was nothing to worry about. His family was nice, and they totally believed we were a couple.
All that was left now was to get through this vacation.
A knock came to my door, the one I'd been waiting for all day. My place was more immaculately clean than it ever had been, since I'd been stress cleaning all day. I'd gone as far as to scrub the base of all my windows. I finally took a calming potion that made me relax a bit, and was able to sit and watch some TV before Ellery’s arrival.
I’d expected him to be late, so I was shocked when I noticed it was almost twenty minutes early. When I opened the door, there he was. I had seen him just a few days ago, but every time I saw him, it felt like I saw something new. He had a dark sweater on that fit to his body perfectly, and black slacks. He looked to have gotten a haircut. His sides were shorter and more clean, and his curls were even more styled than normal.
Just planning on traveling, I was in black leggings and a large sweater, and instantly felt underdressed.
"Hello," he greeted. "Are you ready?"
"I am," I said. At least as ready as I could be.
He grabbed my roller and headed towards his car. After I shut and locked my door, I realized he was headed towards a different car than he'd picked me up in a week ago. This was a large white Mercedes SUV. Of course he had more than one nice car.
